


I'm breaking like the waves, I'm dragging like the days

by wtfoctagon



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, alternatively titled:, and i wrote 7k for it, background yukilisa, i hate this, i really just wanted to see misaki's competence be acknowledged, me n a friend came up with an sao au, misaki comes home after a near-death experience and is super soft and clingy with kanon, so here's a lot of misaki being unexpectedly useful for roselia despite being 20 levels undeleveled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 00:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14842404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wtfoctagon/pseuds/wtfoctagon
Summary: SAO au where the bandori girls get stuck in a virtual mmo that they can't escape, and when you die you die in real life. When elite frontline guild Roselia asks for Misaki's help in a dungeon, she's more than happy to say yes; but it doesn't turn out to be the vacation from babysitting the three dummies that she had hoped for.





	I'm breaking like the waves, I'm dragging like the days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oceanterminal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceanterminal/gifts).



> so!!! some context for this lskdjfnvsdf it's an sao au, but for those of you lucky enough not to know what sao is, it's an anime where people who logged into a newly released virtual mmorpg (operated by a headset and complete nerve immersion i guess??) are told that they cannot log out until the game has been won, i.e. the last floor of the world has been cleared. if you die, you die for real. 
> 
> frontliners are the brave players who decided to train and take up the main effort of clearing the floors one by one in hopes of eventually beating the game. Roselia, obviously is one of them- so is Pasupare, and Afterglow makes occasional appearances on the frontlines. 
> 
> Hello Happy World (HHW) on the other hand, stays on lower levels, completing quests for people who can't or are too afraid to leave the safety of towns. 
> 
> skdjfv me n my best friend came up with a whole system for it, the game is called NFO and we made up our own class system n shit,,, it's kind of a lot so i won't go into a WHOLE lot but for context, you pick one class as your primary then can pick a secondary class later on. Misaki is a druid who took bard as a secondary after getting roped into HHW bc she was trying to hard to keep them alive. 
> 
> Yukina is a super famous and scary bard called the Thundercaller who figured out a way to completely break the class system and make bard a DPS class- Lisa busts her ass tanking for her lmao. Misaki's,,, infamous bc of a certain glitch that she got caught up in. 
> 
> uuuuhhh lsdkfjnv i don't know what else i need to explain i'll probably update this if ppl are confused but yeah im sorry it's not as polished as i usually strive for; i realized that i stopped having fun writing? and i kind of want to focus on the fun parts instead of getting so wrapped up about trying to publish a well-crafted story.
> 
> title form the lyrics of Ocean Stone by Chris O'Brien, which is a peak misakanon song btw.

These people are insane.

It’s the only thought that Misaki has as she leaps for cover yet again, barely avoiding turning into collateral damage for one of the biggest fireblasts she’s ever seen. She didn’t even know that base levels spells could get that powerful. Flyaway rubble sprays her in the face a little and she coughs, pulling up the hood of her robes.

Another wave of thunder rings through the mob room and Misaki curls in on herself. This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. She doesn’t know why she ever said yes to this whole ordeal.

In her defense— one doesn’t exactly just say no when one of the most famous frontline guilds take the time to come down to a lower level for the express purpose of asking to borrow a specific player from another guild. When Roselia, renowned for their crazy strength and exclusivity, showed up on HHW’s doorstep asking for “Michelle the Bear,” Misaki was happy enough to say yes— it would be cool, she told herself. She’d get to play with some sane people for once instead babysitting three hyperactive DPS players. She’d get to do some greater good at the frontlines.

The gleeful cackle of Ako, Roselia’s dragoon echoes throughout the room with another loud impact sound and Misaki groans. This isn’t the change of pace she was hoping for.

The cooldown for her shield spell finishes so she dares to take a peek around cover— it’s a raging mess, still. There are about twenty dragonlings mobbing the paladin while a full-grown dragon perches in the middle, breathing down hellfire that’s enough to one-hit most players—

And the members of Roselia aren’t even phased. Their paladin, Lisa, stands closest to the dragon and draws all the attention to herself while the rest of the party pick off the dragonlings with their _insane_ abilities—

Misaki sees a stray dragonling creeping up on Lisa and holds her breath. They can handle it, right? She’s gonna be fine— she’s got a crazy HP pool, it’s not like one sneak attack will hurt much—

Even after five seconds no one in Roselia notices and Misaki panics.

“Lisa-san!” she yells, “behind you!”

She doesn’t risk Lisa not catching the attack on time— taking off towards the dragonling in a sprint, she shifts into a tiger mid-leap and tackles it to the ground.

In hindsight, full-on attacking a monster many levels above her is a stupid idea but she gets lucky. Very, very lucky, as she crits the tackle and staggers the dragonling— it skids away a few feet on the ground before an arrow comes out of _nowhere_ and finishes it off. Misaki looks up to see the end of Hikawa Sayo’s half-cape flitting away to the other side of the and out of sight already.

These people are terrifying.

“Nice catch, Misaki, thanks!” Lisa says cheerfully, running another dragonling through with her sword before pushing it off with her shield. “In five seconds, I need you to jump!”

Misaki blinks as Lisa raises her shield. Tiger form isn’t exactly optimal for jumping, but she’s not sure she wants to shift back just yet.

“What do you me— AAAAHHHH!”

She’s launched into the air when Lisa brings her shield down and the entire ground cracks into a terrible earthquake— it shoots her HP below her transformation threshold and she splats back onto the ground face-first with nothing but her robes to protect her from the impact.

Note to self— _always_ listen to Lisa.

Misaki hears Lisa’s laugh and a set of greaves clinking nearer. “I _did_ warn you,” Lisa says, and it sounds like she’s kneeling down next to Misaki. She feels a hand touch her shoulder and then a wave of warmth that massages out the pain from her body. “Though I guess I probably should have explained that before we started. You okay?”

She groans and flips over, squinting. Lisa’s kneeling over her with a sheepish smile, with the room in a total state of freshly-finished carnage behind her. All the dragonlings have been finished off, starting to disintegrate, and even the main dragon itself is fading slowly with Ako’s spear stuck in its skull.

“I’m fine,” she wheezes, sitting up. Lisa smiles and opens her mouth to say something before she’s interrupted by a displeased scoff coming up just behind her.

“She’s slowing us down,” Minato "Thundercaller" Yukina, the most famous and powerful bard in the server, walks up to them, holstering her staff and crossing her arms. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

“I don’t like it either, but there’s nothing that we can do,” Sayo says, picking through the loot. “The last chamber of this dungeon needs a druid who can carry a key through a mousehole and then up a vertical shaft as a bird before the five second trap trips—”

“Which is something only she can do because of her glitch that eliminates the cooldown on her transformation,” Yukina acknowledges with an annoyed flick of her hair. “The same glitch that also changed all of her animal forms to a bright pink. We don’t know what other unexpected factors we’re risking right now.”

“Guys, come on,” Lisa says goodnaturedly, helping Misaki to her feet. “There’s no point arguing about it. It’s not like we can leave her behind right now, we’re already halfway. Let’s just do our best to push through, alright? And Misaki will be trying her best too.”

She says that last part with a brilliant grin while slinging her arm around Misaki’s shoulders and giving her a few friendly squeezes. Impossible as it sounds, Misaki’s pretty sure her HP is draining just from the sheer coldness in Yukina’s stare; and she shrivels in Lisa’s grasp like a very unimpressive raisin until Lisa lets go of her and steps forward to take both of Yukina’s hands.

“Come on. Don’t be so grouchy. For me?”

Misaki tries not to react as one of the most terrifying people she’s ever met turns a bright red and _stammers._

“F-fine.” She turns around. “Just keep an eye on her.”

She starts storming off to the next room without a word. Misaki blinks several times, looking between Yukina and Lisa, because that was… interesting, to say the least.

“Don’t take it personally, okay?” Lisa says as she starts pulling them along as well. “She’s just a bit stressed right now.”

Misaki rubs the back of her neck. This isn’t exactly how she imagined getting to work with the Thundercaller herself would be like, but she can’t say she’s too surprised.

“She’s right, though. I _am_ being kind of a pain to take care of. I’m sorry…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Lisa reassures her. “You’re actually being pretty useful for someone twenty levels under. We’re just…” she scrunches her nose. “A bit strung up right now. The first time we tried this dungeon didn’t go so well.”

Misaki looks up at Lisa just as they pass into the shadow of the tunnel leading to the next room.

“What happened?” she asks as she snaps a dim magelight to life on her palm. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Well…” Lisa sighs. “We were actually running it with another guild. One of the few times that we team up, really. Yukina and Sayo don’t really like working with others.”

Yeah, that part was pretty obvious. Misaki says nothing.

“We managed to get to the last room just fine and looted the key from the boss, as usual. They sent their druid through the mousehole to solve the puzzle, but…” Lisa grimaces. “The trap triggered before he could shift into a bird. You can imagine what happened.”

They stare at the rest of the party walking ahead of them, watching as Sayo and Yukina discuss something under their breaths— probably some strategy— and Ako and Rinko talk excitedly about some new spell.

“Yukina doesn’t let it show very often,” Lisa says with a small smile. “But losing people always shakes her up pretty badly. She blames herself too much for every little thing; that’s why she’s so antsy about putting you in danger along with us right now.”

She says it in such a… tender way, her voice softening to a cashmere cadence as something warm and unknowable spreads in her eyes like an inkdrop on water. It’s a… familiar tone. Misaki tilts her head.

“Are you two close?”

The affectionate film breaks and gets swept away when Lisa blinks and glances at Misaki.

“Hmm?” She smiles. “Oh! Yeah. We’ve known each other for forever, actually, since we were little kids. We started playing together.”

There’s something longing about the way she says ‘forever’ — a proud declaration that still has something… wistful about it. There’s just the slightest papery kind of tone in her voice that reminds Misaki too much of the tremor in her own throat when she thinks about Kanon—

She shakes her head. Misaki’s probably reading into too much.

“That must have been kind of nice, having someone when this all started,” she says, extinguishing her magelight as they start to catch up to the others who are waiting by the room door.

“I guess so, yeah.” Even though Lisa says it with a smile, it’s tinged with… something. Something too familiar for comfort. Misaki tries not to think about it too much; it’s none of her business, anyway. She’s just here to help them with a puzzle and they’ll be on their way, being terrifying players at the terrifying frontlines.

The trick is to survive until the last room, she supposes.

 

* * *

 

By the time Sayo’s arrow pierces through the final bosses’ eyeball to finish it off, Misaki has had just about enough of this place. It’s scary. Sure, all she had to do was stay out of the way and let the professionals handle the monsters, and that’s exactly what she did, but oh boy. Rinko’s fireblasts are going to be ringing in her ears for weeks. She wants to go home now.

“You’re up,” Lisa says, patting her on the back and pointing to the mousehole at the bottom of the treasure room gate.

Yukina walks over and places the golden key from the boss into her hands with a severe look. “Be sure not to screw it up.”

Misaki tries to interpret it as worry, just as Lisa told her to. It’s a little bit hard, what with the extremely unimpressed tone of voice and disinterested glare, but she can see it. Sort of. She clasps the key in her hand and swallows.

“G-good luck, Misaki-san…” Rinko murmurs, only just loud enough for Misaki to hear.

“Yeah, good luck!”

Misaki musters up a smile in response to Ako’s cheeriness, and nods. “Thank you.”

She takes a deep breath and starts walking towards the mousehole, running a hand through her hair.

“Okay,” she mutters. “Here goes nothing…”

Putting the key in her mouth and clenching down with her teeth, she breaks into a jog before shifting into a mouse, starting her count as soon as she passes through the tiny corridor.

One. She sprints towards the small spot where the light from above is shining down into the small space.

Two. She gets to the end, tosses the key up into the light as she shifts into a sparrow, grabs it out of the air with a claw.

Three. Flap, flap, flap— she pushes at the air with all her might, feeling the edges of the narrow shaft brush against the edges of her wingspan.

Four— reaching the small landing, throwing the key down towards the keyhole before shifting into a mouse again and running—

Five—  don’t fumble the key, pick it up, get it in, turn—

_Click._

She exhales two entire lungfuls of air in relief as the chamber opens up next to her, and she feels the door swinging open slowly. She waits until it slams into place before jumping out the small opening into the light.

Ako whoops just as Misaki shifts back and sticks a three-point landing, straightening up with a meek smile.

“You didn’t die!” Ako yells, holding her lance above her head with a huge grin. Rinko pales, seemingly embarrassed on her behalf, but Misaki is so rung out on the adrenaline high that she just bursts out into laughter.

“I didn’t,” she coughs. “Thank god.”

When she looks up again, Lisa is beaming at her, and even Sayo has the slightest uptick in a corner of her mouth— Yukina, however, has her back turned, already heading for the giant treasure chest in the middle of the room.

“Come,” she says, reaching to open the chest. “We should hurry to log this portal and get back to town—”

_Boom._

The chest bursts open with a flash; Misaki feels her entire body get punched _hard,_ getting blown onto her back as she skids a little— her skin burns from the impact, her ears are ringing, she can’t fucking _see—_

A scream tears through the air like cracked lightning.

 _“Yukina!”_ A broken, desperate version of Lisa’s voice cries out, accompanied by the clanging of greaves, interrupted by a horrible roar.

Misaki blinks away the blurriness in her eyes, scrambling to get up despite what feels like heavy water sloshing around in her skull—

The chest is growling, black tendrils growing out of its open maw, swinging around, and _oh._ A mimic. The biggest mimic she’s ever seen.

This is bad.

“Yukina!”

Misaki looks over to her side and sees Lisa— Lisa, kneeling with an unconscious Yukina in her arms, shaking her—

“Watch out!”

Misaki’s jostled again when someone shoves her to the side, leaving her rolling a little bit along the floor. She coughs and looks up to see a crater where she used to be and Sayo standing over her, firing arrows in a steady rhythm.

“Get out of the way!” Sayo shouts at her before leaping up to another vantage point. Misaki doesn’t need to be told twice— she shifts into a sparrow again and launches off, trying to find a crevice high up on the rocky walls to hide in.

“Rin-Rin! Incoming!”

Perched on a small outcropping, Misaki hops around— there’s a tendril swinging towards Rinko but she’s trying to load up a spell before it hits—

She’s not fast enough. It hits her fully in the chest, smashing her against the wall, and this time it’s Ako who’s screaming.

 _“You’re gonna pay for that!”_ she snarls, leaping into the air for a lance strike—

“Udagawa, no! Don’t be hasty—”

Sayo’s warning comes too late. A tendril comes up behind Ako and knocks her out of the air, and now it’s only Sayo and Lisa standing but—

“Imai!” Sayo screams, leaping as she releases another five shots. “It’s coming for you!”

Just as she said, one of the huge appendages raises up into the air, then slams down at Lisa— she raises her shield just in time but it still takes more than half her HP and Misaki chokes.

 _“Get out of the way!”_ Sayo shrieks, still desperately trying to aggro it off Lisa. It’s not working. The mimic raises the same tendril to slam down again, and Lisa’s not going to survive the blow unless she heals herself and she only just has enough time for a spell—

She raises her shield again instead of healing herself. Why— why? She’s going to _die—_

Misaki sees Yukina’s health bar and understands. The leftover damage from the first hit put her in critical condition. She’ll die unless Lisa uses a two-turn charged block to negate any damage pierce-through. Of course. Of course she’s not using one of her turns to heal; Lisa closes her eyes, expression neutral, the face of someone who’s made a decision that wasn’t even a choice or up for debate in the first place—

_No._

“Hey, _fuckface!”_ Misaki screams as she pushes off the ledge, shifting back into human form just to pull one of Hagumi’s acid concoctions out of her inventory and launch it towards the mimic. She lands on the other side of the room just as she hears it shatter open and fizzle and hiss— the mimic screams, and she knows it’s not nearly strong enough to do more than stun it for a second.

But a second is all she needs; she makes sure to equip her grimoire before shifting into bear form, the heavy tome still held in her claws. It flips open with a rush of air, and she slams a paw down onto a page with an incantation circle.

 _“Impetus Tempestatis Sollers!”_ she roars, feeling the song rush from inside her to across the room in a glimmer of red.

Normally, shifting into bear form before casting a spell would be suicide in such a dire situation. Bear form cuts the shifter’s MP pool to a fifth, while multiplying the HP pool and regen rate by twenty. But after the glitch catastrophe on floor three that Misaki was caught in, it was reversed— her HP drops drastically while her MP becomes nigh undepletable, allowing her to easily use a grimoire augment that multiplies the spell cost for the price of increasing range and potency. It’s the one gimmick that’s allowed her to keep HHW’s cast of acrobatic DPS strikers alive for so long.

Sayo stumbles, missing her shot as she suddenly becomes much faster mid-air. But they really are professionals, Misaki thinks, as it takes both Lisa and Sayo all of half a second to adjust to the new boost in speed. Lisa gathers Yukina in her arms before dashing away to where Rinko went down, using her doubled amount of turns to load up a healing spell— Sayo releases a flurry of arrows into the side of the mimic facing away from them that hits too fast and hard for the mimic to focus on anything else.

 _“Ego intexo canticum secundum!”_ Misaki flips to another page and presses her palm into it as well. _“Vigor Bestiae!”_

She watches in satisfaction as a green light washes over the room and everyone’s HP bar starts ticking up— it’s next to unnoticeable for Lisa, but the others are steadily reaching the threshold for re-gaining consciousness, and Sayo’s is going back to a safer level.

Unfortunately for her, the mimic realizes that she’s the reason the others have gotten a second wind. Not one, not two, but _three_ tendrils start shooting towards her, too fast for her to disengage her spells and get out of the way—

A single, big bolt of lightning burns them out of the way before they hit. Misaki dares to glance to the side and sees Rinko, just barely standing but standing nonetheless, a smoky hand outreached. She gives Misaki small smile before a wild tendril comes slashing and Sayo leaps in to quickly grab her out of the way.

Misaki reassesses the room. Yukina is still down, but behind Lisa, who’s dutifully standing her ground and drawing as many of the tendrils as she can— Rinko and Ako are back in action, but just barely, and with the HP count Misaki doesn’t feel good about Ako getting anywhere near melee range while their tank is busy defending a downed member.

She draws a deep breath and does something she’s only done once before.

_“Ego intexo canticum tertium! Tutamen Maius!”_

A translucent wall pulses once in front of all of them before fading. The ‘shielded’ icon appears by all of their names and Misaki grits her fangs as she feels the three-layer song start seriously sapping at her MP. She only has so long before she’s out.

Roselia fights as one unit now that the panic has passed, even without their leader— Misaki watches, slightly awed, as their strikes are timed perfectly one after another. The mimic’s HP is going down, slowly but surely. Just a bit more now.

“I’m almost out of MP!” Ako yells, dodging a tendril.

Shit. Misaki checks— all of them are on their last legs MP-wise. They don’t _have_ much longer to whittle away at the mimic.

“Get into position for the combo!” Sayo shouts.

“What? But without Yukina —”

“It’ll be weaker, I know!” Sayo hisses, firing. “But it’s all we’ve got at this point!”

Ako and Rinko nod grimly and start moving— even Lisa changes her defense stance to a damage reflect one, and they’re getting ready for something— they’re readying some sort of combo attack, right? Some ultimate finisher?

It’ll be weaker without Yukina, they said. It might not be enough. Misaki could boost them, but she doesn’t have time to Diminuendo one of the songs and she’s never tried a fourth—

But this is make or break it, at this point. She flips to another page, slams her paw down, and does it anyway.

 _“Ego intexo canticum quartum!”_ She roars, really, really, _really_ hoping the MP cost won’t jump immediately to an overdrain and blow up in her face. _“Fortitudo Muris!”_

Everyone starts glowing with a faint gold light— one, two, three, Misaki closes her eyes and counts the seconds as she waits for them to land the hit—

A low humming fills her ears before rising to a screeching pitch that explodes into so much noise that Misaki’s pretty sure her eardrums are blown out. Her MP depletes, and with a familiar shock to her nerves her transformation falls—

Thankfully, by the time her human eyes have blinked away all the spots, the mimic is already half-disintegrated, and everyone is still alive. Out of breath, out of MP, mostly battered, but still alive.

Jesus fuck.

“Did you just—” Sayo begins, grimacing as she drops to one knee and catches herself with a hand; the small sound is comically loud in the sudden silence. “Did you just hold four songs at maximum range?”

Misaki takes a few seconds to process the question. “Not for very long.”

Ako shakes her head, leaning heavily on her lance. “That was so awesome. I can’t believe you did that.”

“Thank you,” she says rather blandly, feeling her head start to spin. “I tried.”

She blinks once, then promptly passes out.

 

* * *

 

_“Lisa-san…”_

_“Yeah, Misaki?”_

_“Do you really do that every time?”_

_“Do what?”_

_“Just… that. Tanking for all four of them by yourself. Getting that close to getting wiped out. Does that happen often?”_

_“Oh, well. I guess, yeah. It kind of comes with the territory, you know? Someone’s gotta keep them alive.”_

_“... why?”_

_“Why… what?”_

_“Why do you still do it? They could take a secondary class in something sturdier. It’s dangerous.”_

_“I mean… I guess they could. But I don’t really want to make them have to. None of them would enjoy tanking, I don’t think.”_

_“Do you?”_

_“Enjoy tanking?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“N… ooot really? I’m more of a… healer type in games, I think. Or, I used to be.”_

_“Why did you start as a paladin, then?”_

_“Well, I didn’t think we’d get stuck with these characters. I wanted to help Yukina learn how to play, you know, keep her safe while she’s getting the hang of her first MMO. And then all that happened.”_

_“... are you really okay with that?”_

_“Haha. Would it matter if I wasn’t? It… It is what it is. I love these guys too much to just up and quit now. And Yukina…”_

_“...”_

_“Yukina means the world to me. She’s strong, but not enough to do everything by herself— even if she thinks she can. Someone’s gotta look after her, you know?”_

_“...”_

_“...”_

_“… I guess I can understand that.”_

_“I thought you might. Sounds like you don’t have the easiest time being the only support build in your team either, hey?”_

_“Hah. Yeah, I guess not...”_

 

* * *

 

Misaki buys a premium cabin for the train ride back into town just because. The split loot from the haul is enough money for them to buy HHW a new guild _mansion._ She’s rolling in more money than she’s ever held and she doesn’t know what to do with it.

And technically, it’s not like she should be saving it, either. After her performance, Roselia extended an unofficial invitation for Misaki to join them on dungeon crawls and… that’s, really nice, and really flattering, but Misaki thinks she’s had enough near death experiences for one lifetime. Maybe when she’s a bit higher levelled, and they’re getting close to the final floor. _Maybe._

Misaki pulls her new necklace out of her inventory and lays it on her lap to just… look at it. It’s called Kassandra’s Tear. With the purple text and everything, it’s a real, one-of-a-kind, Unique Item— and Misaki still can’t believe Roselia let her have it.

It only widens the range of bard abilities, Yukina said. It’s of no use to any of them. Lisa stood behind Yukina, making silent faces at Misaki to stop being modest and just take it, and, well— who is she to say no at that point? They must get unique items all the time. Or something.

What is it even like, to live like that? Under constant threat of death? Never knowing for sure if they’ll come back out alive?

Misaki guesses that— it’s like that for everyone, technically. There is never a guarantee that you’ll survive even a low leveled dungeon. It only takes one accident to end everything. But to be on the frontlines like that, all the time—

Misaki remembers Lisa’s face when she just accepted that she would die to save Yukina with zero hesitation. Closing her eyes, she returns the necklace to her inventory and curls up in her seat.

How would Yukina have felt, waking up to that kind of news? How would someone even move on after losing someone like that? Not even getting to say goodbye or see them when they…

It only hits her when she gets off the train into a misty kind of rain. That almost happened to her. That almost happened to everyone in HHW. If things hadn’t worked out, all they would have gotten— all they would have heard was some bad news. No last meetings or anything. They would have woken up, and Misaki would have been gone.

She starts running for the guild house.

A part of her finds it just so funny— she thought that she’d learned her lesson when she first learned that she was trapped in this hellhole. She cried over never having said goodbye to her family and slowly came to grips with it— she cried and cried and hated how mundanity made her appreciate her family less and then… and then, now, her friends in this server became the new mundane that she took for granted.

She slips on the front step and nearly slams into the door, only just catching herself. What she wants to do is burst into the house and hug the first person she sees but it’s—

She checks her interface. It’s three in the morning. Suddenly emotional and teary greetings can wait until later.

Being careful not to make too much noise, she opens the door and heaves her drenched self in, closing it slowly behind her. She cringes when her wet boots are louder on the wooden floors than they have any right to be— it’s all pixels anyway, why would anyone go to the lengths to program something so trivial as that? She just swears quietly under her breath and starts hauling herself down the hallway, stopping when she sees the light in the kitchen on.

Her heart jumps a little but she just shakes her head and stamps it down. Kokoro probably just forgot to turn it off again. She trudges towards the kitchen to click it off. They pay twice the utility than they need to just because Hagumi and Kokoro always forget to turn things off after they’re done—

She steps into the room and freezes, still dripping wet. It’s not just Kokoro forgetting to clean up after herself.

Kanon stands in front of the table, kettle half-raised to pour into a cup, equally as stunned and frozen. She stands there, her beautiful blue hair completely undone and spilling over her shoulders like a cascading summer sky— she stands there, in her cute nightgown that’s made with layers of frilly and sheer lace to look kind of like a jellyfish, a pale lavender to match her big, teary eyes.

Kanon. It’s Kanon and Misaki has never been so glad to see her.

Kanon slowly lowers the kettle, setting it down on the table gently without ever breaking eye contact, without ever making a sound. Letting go of the handle, she stares some more, eyes wide and starting to glisten a little.

“Misaki-chan…?” she finally says, and the sound of her voice washes over Misaki like bubbly waves of relief, like a breeze rustling through a windchime.

“Hi,” she says, quietly, awkwardly raising a hand to wave. She must look so stupid right now— drenched like a drowned rat, _waving_ like they just saw each other across the street or something.

“Misaki-chan,” Kanon says again, and this time it’s not a question so much as an awed sigh— she darts around the table towards Misaki with her arms coming up for a hug and Misaki almost takes a step back.

“Wait— I’m totally drenched right n—”

Kanon crashes into her anyway, throwing her arms around slightly taller shoulders and burying her face in damp black hair— Misaki tries very hard to care that she’s probably extremely unpleasant to hug and is making Kanon’s nightgown wet right now—

But now, Kanon’s here, right in front of her, her silky soft hair smelling like lilac and a hint of honey— her breath is warm against Misaki’s neck and she forgets why she shouldn’t be hugging her back just as tightly.

“You’re back,” Kanon says as Misaki wraps her arms around her waist and pulls her close. “You’re back.”

And the whispery reverence in her voice makes Misaki to seize up with so much adoration that she squeezes firmly, nuzzling into the crook of Kanon’s neck with a sigh.

“I missed you,” she murmurs, lips brushing against Kanon’s skin.

“I-I missed you too,” Kanon says, her voice a little squeakier and shakier now (but still just as lovely). “Are you okay?” she pulls away, sliding her hands to cup Misaki’s face. “Did everything go okay?”

Misaki hesitates as she rests her hands on Kanon’s waist. “... More or less.”

Kanon tenses. “What happened?”

She almost died, is what happened, and somehow managed to be the saving factor in what would have been a very bad situation for Roselia, but— does she really want to tell Kanon right now?

Misaki opens her mouth to say something like ‘nothing’ — but Kanon’s  giving her such a gentle, worried look that she can’t bring herself to lie right to her face.

“Could we talk about it later?” she says instead. “I’m exhausted.”

“Oh—” Kanon’s hands fall from Misaki’s face to her shoulders. “Of course— you should get some rest,” she says, as she starts to pull away but Misaki tugs her back a little bit.

“Wait, can we just…” she trails off, not actually sure of what she wanted to request— Kanon’s eyes go wide, and a blush starts blooming across her cheeks.

“O-oh, I-I mean— I, uhm,” she stammers, and Misaki almost laughs because she can’t blame Kanon. She’s being uncharacteristically touchy and needy and she’s probably going to be so embarrassed in the morning but right now, she’s woozy with fatigue and relief and she just wants to hold Kanon.

“Sorry,” she murmurs, pulling back a little and letting go of Kanon’s waist. “I’m being clingy.”

“No!” Kanon yelps probably a little too loudly for three am as she grasps the lapels of Misaki’s robes and steps closer. “I don’t mind! I was just surprised!”

The way that she presses up against Misaki, as if to try and reassure her, is just so… cute and endearing and makes this feeling swell up in her chest that wants her to lean in and kiss her— and Misaki wonders, if a near-death experience isn’t enough to make her ask Kanon out, what in the world will be?

She smells a bit of chocolate and looks over Kanon’s shoulder to see the half-made cup of hot chocolate sitting on the table still.

“Why… were you making hot chocolate at three in the morning?” she asks, lightly rubbing Kanon’s back with her palm. Kanon glances over her shoulder as well before breaking into an even redder flush; it’s the one that surfaces when she’s extremely embarrassed, which is interesting because Misaki doesn’t know why she would be.

“I— um—” Kanon worries the edge of Misaki’s lapels with her fingers and refuses to make eye contact. “I… couldn’t sleep.”

Misaki cants her head. “Why not?”

Kanon gnaws on her lip for a moment before pressing her face into Misaki’s chest. She mumbles something quiet and muffled— which is extremely adorable to hear, but also unintelligible.

“I can’t hear you,” she laughs lightly, smoothing her hand over Kanon’s back in a wider circle to encourage her. Kanon resurfaces, but instead of looking up at Misaki she turns her head away and leans her cheek on her shoulder instead.

“I was… really worried…” she says. Misaki waits, but she doesn’t elaborate any further.

“About…?” she prompts, bringing her other hand around to play with a strand of Kanon’s hair.

“Mmph.” Kanon pulls Misaki a little closer. “You.”

A small part of Misaki is really glad that’s she’s too tired to be nervous right now. A confession like that on any other day just might have killed her, but right now— something sinks in her chest like a windfall.

“Have you been having trouble sleeping the entire time I was gone?”

Kanon doesn’t say anything and after a few seconds, nods slightly. Misaki sighs deeply, bringing her hands up to hold Kanon’s shoulders and pull away slightly; Kanon starts to step away, thinking that she’s being pushed, but Misaki cradles her jaw and leans in to touch her lips to her cheek, pressing firmly for a few seconds before pulling away.

“I’m sorry,” she says, softly running her thumbs up and down Kanon’s jaw before letting go. “Thank you for being worried about me.”

Kanon looks a bit like a stiff strawberry trying very hard to find something to look at other than Misaki’s face. “No— welcome, I mean— you’re proble—” she squeaks and buries her face in her hands.

“Sorry,” Misaki apologizes again, taking a step back. “Too much?”

“N-no!” Kanon reaches out and grabs one of Misaki’s hands. “I’m just— I’m just really surprised— you don’t usually—”

“Get this touchy, I know,” Misaki says. “I’m sorry. I’m just really tired.”

Kanon blinks, blush fading a bit— she squeezes her hand. “You should rest— you’ve had a long week.”

“Would you…” Misaki tugs on her hand tentatively. “Could you walk me up to my room? I know that’s probably weird to ask but—”

But she just wants to spend as many of her conscious moments as possible with Kanon right now.

“It’s not weird! I’d love to— I mean, I—” Kanon closes her mouth and readjusts their hands, deciding to just start leading them down the hall.

Misaki smiles, letting herself get pulled along, pretending for a moment that they _are_ dating, that right now it’s not just her guildmate leading her to her room but her worried _girlfriend_ insistently tugging her along to get some well-earned rest.

Maybe one day.

Misaki stands a bit awkwardly in her doorway when they get here— she wants to give Kanon some sort of affectionate goodbye but unfortunately her rationality is coming back around for a random second wind and the thought of being even _more_ clingy than she already has been is making her itchy in the bad way.

“I— goodnight, Kanon-san,” she settles for, rubbing the back of her neck. “Thank you for— for putting up with me tonight.”

Kanon shakes her head, wringing her hands and rocking slightly on her feet. “N-no, I didn’t mind— I’m just glad that you—” she starts gnawing on her lip again before taking a deep breath; squaring her shoulders, she looks up at Misaki with lavender eyes that are a dusky violet in the darkness of the hall.

Misaki’s just about to ask what it is that she looks so determined for when Kanon reaches up to cup her face again and rises to return the kiss on the cheek earlier— except, it’s not quite on the cheek, erring more towards the corner of Misaki’s lips instead.

“Thank you for coming back safe, Misaki-chan,” Kanon whispers, slowly letting her hands fall from Misaki’s face. “Goodnight.”

Then she darts off down the hall, not even giving Misaki a chance to say it back— not even giving her a chance to do much of anything other than just stand there and wonder if that really just happened. Misaki hesitantly brushes her fingertips to where she’s just been kissed— it still tingles a little bit and she collapses against the doorframe. Wow. That really happened.

Misaki smiles as she pushes herself upright again, heading towards her bed.

Maybe one day.

 

* * *

 

She gets ambushed in the morning. The rapid tapping of bare feet coming down the hall should have been her first warning, but like an idiot she only sat up sluggishly in confusion— by the time she recognized the orange projectile of joy that was heading towards her, it was too late.

“Mii-kun!” Hagumi shouts _right_ in Misaki’s ear as she slams her back into bed, nuzzling so fiercely Misaki thinks she’s getting friction burns. “You’re back!”

She can’t— breathe, not really, but she doesn’t bother fighting back because if one of them is already here then—

“MISAKI!”

— the other one isn’t far behind. Kokoro launches onto the bed, landing on top of Hagumi and Misaki _wheezes_ at the impact.

“Ah, Misaki—” an unnecessarily dramatic voice orates from the doorway because the barrage doesn’t stop, apparently. “You’ve returned!”

_Please, please don’t join the dogpile—_

“Come here, Kaoru-kun!” Hagumi says, leaning up to look over her shoulder and _jamming_ her elbow into Misaki’s chest in the process. “Join in!”

_Oh god._

Misaki can only watch as Kaoru reverse swan dives onto the bed, arms stretched out like wings— she lands, and Misaki loses ten HP.

She can just see the top of Kanon’s hair appear in the doorway along with what sounds like a very breathless Kanon herself.

“I’m— sorry— Misaki-chan—” she pants, “I tried tell them you need your rest…”

Sweet, wonderful Kanon. At least she tried. Misaki just manages to thrust one arm through the carnage to give her a (hopefully) reassuring thumbs up before flinching when Kokoro’s elbow digs into her side.

“Okay—” she croaks, pushing at all of them. “That’s enough— _please—”_

They don’t relent, not that easily, of course— the part of her that isn’t screaming is a little bit glad, to be perfectly honest. It’s much easier to stop herself from tearing up from the sheer relief of seeing her teammates— her _friends_ again, after all of that, if she’s angrily trying to wrestle them off of her. It’s easier to pretend she’s not grateful to be _alive_ and back with them if she’s yelling at them to go away.

Small blessings, she guesses.

It’s not until Kanon comes to her rescue and mentions Michelle that she finally manages to roll to freedom on the other side of the bed.

“Oh yeah! Michelle should be back too!” Kokoro says, somersaulting off the mattress. “Where is she?”

“W-why don’t we go looking for her? I’m sure she’s around!” Kanon stammers, looking at her feet because she’s kind of a terrible liar.

Fortunately, she doesn’t have to try very hard with these three. With varying shouts of enthusiasm, they take off as if Misaki wasn’t even there— which would normally annoy Misaki a little bit but right now she’s never been more _grateful_ for her guildmates’ fixation with her alter ego. She collapses back onto the bed with a sigh, slinging her arm over her eyes.

“Thank you, Kanon-san,” she groans, “I thought I was gonna die.”

“Y-you don’t have to thank me, really,” is the timid reply, followed by a dip in the mattress as Kanon presumably sits down. “To tell you the truth, I really just…”

Kanon pauses, and Misaki waits patiently with her eyes still closed because the light hurts her eyes— the pause drags on and she’s about to sit up and ask what’s up when she hears rustling and feels a head and a hand press onto her chest.

Her nerves fry immediately.

“... I really just wanted a turn too,” Kanon admits quietly into Misaki’s collarbone, and oh— that’s, uh. That’s really nice. That’s really really nice. That’s…

Kanon shifts away a little bit, and Misaki realizes that she’s just frozen and probably looks like she’s dying— which, she kind of is, but that’s besides the point— so she… in an attempt to show that she is in fact enjoying this, she shoots the arm that was laying over her eyes and literally _slaps_ Kanon’s hand back onto her chest.

That’s not embarrassing at all.

“Ah— sorry—” she bumbles and considers getting up to jump out the window because that’s _so_ smooth— “I didn’t— I’m—”

Kanon just giggles and Misaki can’t tell if that makes her feel better or worse until she scoots closer to Misaki’s side, snuggling in and. That’s. Definitely on the better side. Well, it doesn’t fix the sound of the slap still echoing in Misaki’s head and taunting her but it’s definitely a plus at l—

Kanon pecks a kiss on the underside of Misaki’s jaw before cozying back in.

“Welcome home, Misaki-chan.”

Misaki swallows nervously, tucking her chin over Kanon’s head and wrapping her other arm around her shoulders.

Home, sweet home.

 

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! come hang out with me at @wtfoctagon on twitter or misakan0n.tumblr.com- im looking for a job rn so if u wanted to kick me a lil tip to get a nice coffee then head to my twitter !!


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